ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

Joe Crow Ryan pays his rent by playing music in the New York City subway. He has a catalogue of original songs reaching back to the '80s and an ever-growing repertoire of jazz standards and pop songs to please (or pester, depending on your point-of-view) the folks waiting for their train.

Always accompanied by a stuffed leopard named Lili, Joe Crow has an arsenal of instruments including a ukulele, 6- and 12-string guitars, a banjo tuned to sound like a baritone ukulele, numerous percussion instruments, and a harmonica. When set down at a piano, he is likely to let loose with Cecil Taylor-style free jazz, over which he'll spin one of his many yarns.

This CD is the second volume of what looks to be an ongoing series of discs, hoping to compile and preserve Joe Crow's peculiar performances, taped live on stage at New York's Sidewalk Cafe, captured on the fly in the subway, and recorded in the studio. Joe's work is funny, charming, sometimes confusing, and often ultimately moving.

When we finished the first CD, we knew we had enough leftover material to do this second one. Well, it turns out we've got enough left over from THIS one to do at least one more. So expect THIS MACHINE KILLS PURISTS 3... probably in 2011.